If Mal simply didn’t exist, I would’ve enjoyed this much more. He’s literally Gale 2.0. Or even Chaol 2.0. I just don’t care for jealous, bitter male main characters anymore. You’re not that important!

I enjoyed this about the same amount as I did Shadow and Bone, but it felt a lot slower for me (which I think is part of the sequel curse). Nothing really exciting happened until the end, which left me picking up countless other books while I trudged through this. The strongest part of this book was Nikolai. He was an entitled brat, but he’s MY entitled brat. I can’t wait to see more of him in the Grishaverse!